Hello, Hivers, and welcome to my page!
Continuing from last week's post about working on the trailer, I was working on rebuilding the front body framing due to rot in the wood. I was starting the process of cutting the curved pieces for the front corners of the body. I cut the upper pieces by the windows first, and fitted them in behind the laminated curved original frame structure.
After looking at the laminated piece that the new piece was made to support, I decided to remove the laminated section because it was falling apart. I also removed the board below the window because of some rot due to the window leaking on it.
Once that was done, I was able to start fitting the new pieces of wood into the existing framing that is still good. I already had the upper piece that goes next to the window, so I started cutting the lower piece to complete the edge curve to the bottom. When I had the first one cut, it looked like this.
The notch in the middle is to support the frame piece that this fits into.
I started the cutting process by figuring out the angle I would need to be able to cut the outer curve on the piece of 2X8 and then cutting the angles for the fit on the inside. I did that by holding the piece where I wanted it to go and drawing lines, and then cutting it.
Once I had the inside cuts done, I fitted the piece in place and then traced the curve on the board using the side skin as the template. Then I used the circular saw and the sabre saw to cut the curve.
Once I had the curve cut, I was able to fit the piece in place and check it to see if the curve matched the edge of the skin.
With the one side cut and fitted, I cut and fitted the other side.
Once that process was done, I started on the lower support for the windows in the front. I wanted to use a 2X6 for the support piece so there would be enough strength. At first I was going to cut the 2X6 to go in between the edge pieces that I had just finished, but I decided to notch the upper edge pieces so the 2X6 would go all the way across the front and fit into the notches. Once I figured out how the 2X6 would fit, I drew the cut lines by tracing around a short piece of 2X6. Then I pulled the upper support pieces out, and cut the notch in each piece.
After cutting, the pieces were fitted back into place, and the 2X6 was put in place.
You can see the bottom of the 2X6 below the windows in this picture. That provides plenty of support for the weight of the windows, and also provides more stiffness to the body's wood frame.
Once this bit of work was done, I moved on to the lower part of the front. I had to build some framing for the area below the window to support the skin when I put it back on. That will be the subject of my next post about my work on the trailer.
That's all I have for this post.
Thanks for stopping by to check it out!
